India blow apart Australia to clinch T20I series with a game to spare

The young guns of India penned history as they blew apart a touring Australia, clinching the T20I series with one game to spare. Raining down upon Australia’s parade of resurgence, the Men in Blue kept themselves calm as they stormed through the gates of Raipur to secure a historic triumph with the current crop of upcoming stars.

Put into bat, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad got off to a pretty feisty start. The duo posted a half-century stand for the opening partnership post which Jaiswal fell for 37. Shreyas Iyer couldn’t really add much to the Indian tally as he was left undone by Tanveer Sangha.

The Indian captain was a goner even before he could get his eyes in as Ben Dwarshuis schooled SKY for a paltry single. However, an extraordinary showdown of resilience from Rinku Singh coupled with Ruturaj Gaikwad’s late surge saw India hitting the right notes again. 

Despite the departure of Gaikwad for 32, an incoming Jitesh Sharma powered his way through to a quickfire 35 while Singh got out for a 29-ball-46. At the end of their 20 overs, Team India amassed 174 runs for the loss of nine wickets. Ben Dwarshuis and Jason Behrendorff claimed five wickets between them to lead the Aussie bowling attack.

A changed batting unit for Australia, with too many big names returning to their country, couldn’t really try and stall the Indian bowling unit from finding their way through. Axar Patel’s double whammy up front coupled with Ravi Bishnoi’s economical bowling and the important wicket of Josh Phillippe left the visitors stranded in no-man’s land.

Despite Matt Short (22) and Matthew Wade (36) putting up a late showdown, the ship for defiance has already sailed far away from Australia as they fell 20 runs short of the finish line. Axar Patel was the pick of the lot with figures of 3/16 from his four overs.